People's casual attitude to blame for rising Covid infections: Experts
kolkata: The burgeoning COVID-19 infection in Bengal, particularly in the city and its neighbourhood, is due to the casual attitude of the general people who have dumped the safety protocols emboldened by their being fully vaccinated, medical experts here said.
The people, like in other states, are no longer wearing masks or maintaining social distancing required to check the contagion, they said.
The current surge of coronavirus cases in Bengal might not be as dangerous as it was during its outbreak in 2020 but more and more people might be infected this year. The number of fatalities will not be as high as what the state witnessed before people were fully vaccinated, the doctors felt.
This was inevitable going by the casual approach of the common man towards the disease. The virus is very much here but the people are not using masks nor maintaining social distancing. There are congregations of people where you will see all flouting the safety norms, Hiralal Konar of the Joint Platform of Doctors said.
This time because majority of the population are vaccinated the virus may not have a big impact. People may fall ill to the disease, but there will be less deaths, he added.
Konar's words were echoed by the principal of state-run Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General (ID&BG) Hospital, Anima Halder who also expressed her concern over the increasing number of coronavirus patients getting admitted to the medical facility everyday.
Though the situation is under control, it has deteriorated because of our don't care attitude.
At the moment I'm very concerned about the daily increasing number of patients at my hospital. We must have continued maintaining the protocol, Halder said.
She urged the administration to be strict so that the protocol is followed religiously by all and the surge of the infection can be arrested.
West Bengal in the past one-and-half weeks has seen a sharp rise, almost 92 per cent, in the number of new cases of the contagion.
While on June 4, West Bengal reported only 31 fresh cases, it reported 362 only 15 days later on June 19.
The metropolis registered the maximum new cases followed by North and South 24 Parganas districts.
The positivity rate has also shot up from 0.28 per cent to 3.50 per cent ( on June 19), the state health department said in its bulletin.